USCIS to Consider Anti-Americanism, Antisemitism, and Terrorist Activity When Adjudicating Certain Immigration Benefit Requests
Agency’s discretionary authority is derived directly from the INA
By Elizabeth Jacobs on August 21, 2025
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an update to its Policy Manual this week clarifying how officers should apply discretion when adjudicating immigration benefits. Because many benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) are discretionary — meaning USCIS “may” (or may not) approve them even when eligibility is met — this update gives more insight into the agency’s vetting priorities.
Specifically, the policy update instructs officers that if an applicant has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of:
Anti-American ideologies or activities,
Terrorist organizations,
Antisemitic terrorism,
Antisemitic terrorist organizations, or
Antisemitic ideologies,
this will be considered an “overwhelmingly negative factor” when exercising discretion on discretionary immigration benefit requests. USCIS separately expanded the types of benefit requests that will invoke social media screenings to check for anti-American and antisemitic activity.
The policy also clarified when the agency will apply discretion to employment-based immigration benefits. For most employment-based immigrant visa petitions (like EB-1, EB-2, EB-3), USCIS does not apply a discretionary analysis. If an alien meets the statutory and regulatory eligibility criteria, USCIS must approve the petition.
https://cis.org/Jacobs/USCIS-Consider-AntiAmericanism-Antisemitism-and-Terrorist-Activity-When-Adjudicating-Certain
